Little annoyances with Windows 8

One of the only things that I don't mind working full-screen in the new Window 8 way (and I do mean "Window") is the media player. That is until an update. After updating, a message "Sign in" would permanently appear in the top right corner. It could not simply be "canceled" to make it disappear. I had to go through the steps to create an Xbox music account to make the message go away.

I know that I could seek out other media players, but this is exactly the type of stuff Mac users make fun of Windows user about. I just want basic things to work. I don't want to spend time trying to find a media player that doesn't piss me off, or to create an account I'm never going to use just to be able to use the included media player without an annoying message on the screen.

Another annoyance perhaps isn't completely Microsoft's fault (but I'm sure they deserve some of the blame for it) is the broken Intel WiDi in Windows 8. Intel's Wireless Display won't work with the Windows 8 drivers. You actually have to use Windows 7 network drivers to get it to work. It's hard to believe that the driver model changed so drastically between versions 7 and 8 that a manufacturer as big as Intel can't get a feature to work, but clearly that is the case.

I'm not quite done yet. The bluetooth controls for Windows 8 are ridiculous in that they aren't "controls" at all. Double-clicking the bluetooth icon opens up the device panel listing all devices (not just the bluetooth ones). You can click on a bluetooth device in the list, but it doesn't actually do anything other than a press animation. You can't right-click on it to tell Windows to connect to or disconnect from the device, or control the bluetooth options for the device in any way.

Several times I've thought to myself, "Did anybody at Microsoft actually use Windows 8 before releasing it?"